


The Embodiment of Evil

by shadow_lover



Category: Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Canon Divergence, Crack, Deus Ex Machina, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 09:45:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5452214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_lover/pseuds/shadow_lover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This wasn’t like his dream at all, thought Vanyel. In his dream, Leareth stood strong, immovable and terrifying, an unstoppable force of darkness. In reality, this was—kind of pathetic?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Embodiment of Evil

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](https://21-days.dreamwidth.org/1496.html?thread=162264#cmt162264)!

Vanyel stood alone before the throng of darkness. Panting for breath, pale with exertion, he felt stretched beyond the limits of human ability. He was become something else, something both more and less than the mage he’d been before this battle. He was a dream, a nightmare made flesh to face down the terror from the North.

And the enemy emerged, dressed in darkness, shaped from darkness, a terrible and beautiful midnight with piercing eyes. Leareth. _Leareth_ , with black eyes and cheekbones sharp as daggers, with magic crackling up from his talon-like fingernails, with pure evil emanating from the depths of his shallow soul, with an expression of—

Of utter bewilderment.

“Vanyel Ashkevron,” gasped the embodiment of pure evil. “You are—gods—so beautiful...”

This wasn’t like his dream at all, thought Vanyel. In his dream, Leareth stood strong, immovable and terrifying, an unstoppable force of darkness. In reality, this was—kind of pathetic?

“You will not take Valdemar,” snarled Vanyel in an attempt to get this back on track.

Leareth clutched at his chest and staggered. “I mean, I knew you were pretty, I’ve _seen_ you from afar, but—this is—”

“Begone, creature of darkness!” screamed Vanyel, throwing a mage-bolt at Leareth’s heart. This was getting incredibly embarrassing; he could feel Yfandes’ amusement rising beside him.

Leareth deflected the mage-bolt with a wave of his hand, but his face still contorted in agony. “So….pretty…” he whispered—and then collapsed onto the ground, twitching.

With each convulsion, a wave of magical destruction burst out of him. Vanyel and Yfandes barely got their shields up in time. The dark army was not so lucky; by the time Leareth fell still, awkward and grotesque upon the snow, every member of the horde lay with him, just as still and just as dead.

Vanyel hesitantly let his shields drop. Nothing happened.

 _:Well, Chosen,:_ said Yfandes, with the rare and specific tone of one who is relieved to be alive but kind of miffed about not getting the chance to fulfill their long-awaited heroic destiny, _:I guess it’s time to go back to Haven.:_

\--

“Vanyel!” cried Stefen, flinging himself into his lover’s arms. The Herald and Companion had met the guard contingent on their way to the battlefield.

Under the astonished gaze of the guard—whether at the sight of the Herald’s return from certain doom or at the sight of two men so entranced with each other—Vanyel embraced him, burying his face in the auburn curls, and felt himself finally relax. “Stefen,” he choked. “Gods, I love you.”

“What happened?” asked Stefen. “How did you defeat him?”

Vanyel considered recounting the truth of the matter, then shuddered, and in that moment made a solemn vow of silence with Yfandes.

“I can’t speak of it,” he said instead, his tears of distress entirely unfeigned. “It was just too horrible.”


End file.
